This invention generally relates to the process for preparing frozen, unpeeled whole baked potatoes and other root stock vegetables (hereinafter potatoes). Prior efforts of freezing previously cooked unpeeled potatoes have failed to produce a product which when reconstituted by heating to serving temperatures, closely resembled in taste, texture and appearance the fresh vegetable which had been baked in a conventional fashion. Heretofore, such prior processes provided potatoes which when reconstituted had skin that was either cracked, flaky or discolored, or meat that was mushy or had a poor taste.
Most of the prior methods of preserving cooked, unpeeled potatoes involve freezing and much of the work in this area has been directed to pretreatment methods of cooking or blanching the potato prior to freezing. For example, potatoes have been baked, boiled and steamed in various combinations and at various times and temperatures. However, notwithstanding such various pre-treatment methods, the results were always less than satisfactory.
The interest in developing pre-cooked potatoes which can be readily reconstituted by heating, such as in a microwave oven or other quick heating means, is two-fold. First, there is interest in reducing the time and labor of preparing baked potatoes in a conventional fashion where each potato must be hand-oiled, wrapped in foil and baked for about an hour at a temperature of about 425.degree. F. Additionally, the quality of potatoes varies considerably throughout the year, and it would be very desirable to preserve the high quality potatoes which are available only during certain times of the year so that they would be available throughout the year. Both aspects are of particular interest on the commercial level, such as in restaurants and the like. Moreover, with growing consumer acceptance of high quality foods which can be fixed quickly, such as in a microwave oven, the interest could be even greater.
None of the available processes have been found suitable to provide a frozen baked potato which when quickly reconstituted by heating had properties which closely matches those of conventionally baked fresh potatoes. The present invention provides such a process.